Colleague known at UC as likable, honest guy — and Air Force calls him most-wanted deserter

This combination of photos provided by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations shows Tim O’Beirne (left), after his arrest in June 2018. William Howard Hughes Jr. (right), disappeared 35 years ago when he was a captain for the U.S. Air Force. (U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations via AP) less

This combination of photos provided by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations shows Tim O’Beirne (left), after his arrest in June 2018. William Howard Hughes Jr. (right), disappeared 35 years ago ... more

Photo: / Associated Press

Photo: / Associated Press

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This combination of photos provided by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations shows Tim O’Beirne (left), after his arrest in June 2018. William Howard Hughes Jr. (right), disappeared 35 years ago when he was a captain for the U.S. Air Force. (U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations via AP) less

This combination of photos provided by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations shows Tim O’Beirne (left), after his arrest in June 2018. William Howard Hughes Jr. (right), disappeared 35 years ago ... more

Photo: / Associated Press

Colleague known at UC as likable, honest guy — and Air Force calls him most-wanted deserter

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Employees in the University of California president’s office in Oakland knew their former colleague Tim O’Beirne as the personable, brainy number-cruncher for the UC system’s vast health benefits program.

They were stunned Tuesday to learn that the Air Force has identified him as William Howard Hughes Jr., a captain with top-secret clearance who vanished in 1983. The Air Force declared him a deserter and one of its most wanted fugitives — and some suspected he had defected to the Soviets — until his capture last Wednesday.

“Wow. Wow!” said Stephanie Rosh, a retiree insurance manager at UC, when told his story by The Chronicle. She, like other employees, knew O’Beirne as a cheerful health benefits actuary and consultant for Deloitte in San Francisco. He was contracted to work in the UC president’s office during the mid-2000s.

Hughes was a specialist in radar surveillance who worked closely with NATO during the Cold War until he walked away 35 years ago, at age 33.

The Air Force said O’Beirne admitted last week that he was Hughes. He is in confinement at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield amid an investigation, and has not been charged with a crime, said Linda Card, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. No bail or court date have been set.

O’Beirne lived and worked for decades in high-profile positions in one of the busiest metropolitan regions of the country.

He lived in Daly City as Barry O’Beirne and Timothy O’Beirne, and was apparently married. Neighbors knew the couple as Giants fans.

“This just floors me,” said Judy Boyette, a San Francisco attorney who signed O’Beirne’s consulting contracts when she ran human resources and benefits at UC more than a decade ago. Looking at a photo of her former colleague in custody, Boyette was stunned. “My gosh, that’s Tim! Oh, my word. That is unbelievable. But that’s him! Wow.”

She and other former colleagues described O’Beirne as smart, articulate — especially when describing complicated numbers and concepts so that others could understand them — and kind.

“The thing I loved about him was that he could relate to everybody. Just a very nice personality,” Boyette said.

Insurance number-crunchers are often introverted, more at home with statistical tables than with the people who benefit from them, Boyette said. “So it’s really good to find an actuary who’s comfortable socializing with people.”

O’Beirne was so good that she sent him into the delicate realm of labor negotiations.

“I wanted to send someone I thought the union could trust — and they did,” she said. “He was very likable.”

Rosh worked with O’Beirne for years. She called him a leader and considered him a friend.

“He is very smart,” she said. “Always had a wry sense of humor. Always joking.” And when the staff was tired, “he might take the whole team out after work. A team player.”

Part of what shocked Rosh and Boyette about the allegations against O’Beirne, they said, was that at UC he stood for honesty and against deceit of all kinds.

He was captured as part of a passport fraud investigation, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations reported.

The office said in a statement that Hughes had top-secret clearance, limited to “U.S. Secret and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secret information,” at the time he disappeared.

Hughes told investigators last week that he had left because he was depressed about being in the Air Force, the statement said.

The Air Force statement said Hughes was sent to the Netherlands on July 18, 1983, to work with NATO officers on the operations of Airborne Warning and Control electronic surveillance aircraft — and “was never seen again.”.

At some point, however, he withdrew $28,500 from his bank account using 19 branch locations near Albuquerque, the statement said.

One officer told the paper that the Soviets would undoubtedly want to tap Hughes’ knowledge of rocket launch procedures, and that “he is worth his weight in gold to the Russians.”

Hughes said last week that he has lived in California since his disappearance, Air Force officials said.

Public records show that Barry O’Beirne was born in 1952 and is 65 or 66 years old. However, those records begin in 1984 — one year after Hughes vanished.

A review of public records by The Chronicle indicates that O’Beirne moved from city to city within the state, with stints in San Diego, El Cajon (San Diego County), San Francisco, Brisbane, San Mateo and most recently Daly City.